Gas Prices at All-Time High

Gas prices surged nearly 7 cents over the past two weeks to reach an all-time inflation-adjusted high of $3.26 per gallon of self-serve regular, a national survey said Sunday.

The previous inflation-adjusted record occurred last May 18, when the price was $3.24 in current dollars.

The Lundberg Survey, carried out Friday, tallied prices at about 5,000 gas stations.
Despite the record price, seasonal demand is growing, said Publisher Trilby Lundberg.

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Foreclosures Hit All Time High

More home owners than ever are losing the battle to make their monthly mortgage payments.

Over 900,000 households are in the foreclosure process, up 71% from a year ago, according to a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association. That figure represents 2.04% of all mortgages, the highest rate in the report's quarterly, 36-year history.

Another 381,000 households, or 0.83% of borrowers, saw the foreclosure process started during the quarter, which was also a record.

Additionally, the number of mortgage borrowers who were over 30 days late on a payment in the last three months of 2007 is at its highest rate since 1985.

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Oil: New All-Time High

Oil prices neared $105 a barrel Wednesday for the first time ever after a government report showed a surprise dip in crude supplies and OPEC announced its decision to not increase production.

U.S. light crude for April delivery settled at a record $104.52, up $5, beating the previous settlement high of $102.59 set last week. After the settlement, crude prices rose as high as $104.95, topping the previous all-time intraday high of $103.95 set Monday.

In its weekly report, the Energy Information Administration said crude stocks fell by 3.1 million barrels last week. Analysts were looking for a rise of 2.3 million barrels, according to a Dow Jones poll. Oil was up $2.05 to $101.57 a barrel just prior to the inventory report's release at 10:30 a.m. ET....

Oil prices have risen nearly five-fold since 2002. Most analysts blame rising demand and tight supply. That has also attracted floods of investment money, and exaggerated the effects of supply disruptions.

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Oil: All Time High in Real Dollars

Oil reached a historic high near $104 a barrel Monday, surpassing the inflation-adjusted level of the 1980s, as a weakening dollar made crude futures attractive to investors.

U.S. crude for April delivery hit $103.95 a barrel in early trading before easing to settle at $102.45 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 61 cents for the day.

Crude has now passed what many analysts consider to be the previous record high - $103.76 when adjusted for inflation, set in early 1980 - following the Iranian Revolution. The record high is a bit subjective however - ranging from about $93 to over $103 - depending on the contract cited and the inflation calculation used.

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Record Profits for Exxon

Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the highest quarterly results in U.S. corporate history on the back of record oil prices, even as evidence mounts that the days of record profits for Big Oil are numbered.

The energy giant's net income rose 14% to $11.66 billion, or $2.13 a share, compared with $10.25 billion, or $1.76 a share, a year earlier. The previous quarterly earnings record was the $10.71 billion Exxon recorded in the fourth quarter of 2005. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected $1.95 a share.

Exxon's annual profit of $40.6 billion was also a record, exceeding the $39.5 billion it earned in 2006....

The Irving, Texas, company said fourth-quarter revenue grew to $116.64 billion from $90.03 billion.

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This a normal rate of return. Total revenue minus total cost equals profits.
$116.64B - $104.98 B = $11.66B or 9.99% return

Dow Finishes Above 14,000

Dow Jones: All-Time High 13,861.73

What, exactly, is the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

The DJIA is an index of 30 "blue-chip" U.S. stocks. At 100-plus years, it is the oldest continuing U.S. market index. It is called an "average" because it originally was computed by adding up stock prices and dividing by the number of stocks. (The very first average price of industrial stocks, on May 26, 1896, was 40.94.) The methodology remains the same today, but the divisor has been changed to preserve historical continuity. The DJIA is the best-known market indicator in the world, partly because it is old enough that many generations of investors have become accustomed to quoting it, and partly because the U.S. stock market is the globe's biggest.

other FAQs about the Dow Jones Industrial Average